It is not only the children who make merry on the eves of these three saints’ days. In Lisbon the common people spend the night at the Praça da Figueira--the market-place--which is beautifully decorated with flowers and fruit, some hanging in bunches on sticks. Men and women buy pots of “Majarico”--a sweet-smelling plant, in the middle of which is stuck a large paper pink with some sweet love-verse, and these pinks are presented and accepted with pleasure by both men and women. Farther north, and especially at Coimbra and Figueira, these festivals are most remarkable. There are bonfires and music; the men and women dress in the picturesque costumes of the country, the women wearing, as on all festive occasions, a great deal of very handsome gold jewellery, for they spend most of their earnings on these quaint ornaments, and are very proud of them. There is much guitar-playing by the men, and all join in the popular Portuguese dances, “Ver-de-Gaio” and others, and sing the most lovely romantic songs. CHAPTER VI COUNTRY DANCES, SONGS, AND LEGENDS The peasants are very fond of dance and song, particularly in Northern Portugal. At harvest-time, and in the month of May, they delight in gatherings where old-fashioned Oriental-looking dances take place. They are slow and sedate, consisting quite as much of movements of the body, arms, and hands, as of the feet, and must have been taken from the Moors. You seldom hear any laughter at these _danças_, though in the ordinary way the northern Portuguese are cheery and light-hearted enough. The music which accompanies them is also usually of a weird Oriental nature, in a minor key, like many of the national airs and ballads, but each district has its own peculiar songs, and these have often a great charm and sweetness about them, more especially in the mountainous districts, where the Moors never penetrated, and where the peasants retain more of their ancient Roman and Gothic origin.